A Bag for Meriel

Meriel is a lady with a lot of social capital. She runs the knitting group I attend and for a long time has been a lynchpin of a craft group to which I also go. I know she is involved with at least one other knitting group, a spinning group, and makes costumes for a local theatre. 

Her interest and dedication - not to mention her and her sister-in-law's clear outs - have provided me with many hours of pleasure and with kind and interesting acquaintances, not to mention much of my sewing stash. It seemed a shame that I'd never found a way to actually thank her. So I made her a bag.




I think Meriel may have once had red hair - it's totally white now, just guessing from her colouring and from her love of colour. Everything she makes is brightly coloured, from all parts of the rainbow. So I set out to make her a rainbow bag. 




I'm not sure I accomplished that, but I did learn about the order of colours enough to organise my sewing thread collection this way, which was fun. 




One of the things that came my way from her sister-in-law was a knitted item made from strips of brightly coloured fabrics. I took it apart and was taken with the colours as no doubt she had been. I was sure these needed to be part of Meriel's bag. I ended up ironing the strips then weaving and pinning them together, then stitching all the rows and columns. It was good fun. That became the inside pocket, which I lined with a rose coloured velvet. Over time I've come to realise that a snuggle-y pocket is a feature I like to include.

As with all my bags (so far), the inside is also a patchwork, of cream coloured muslin or linen. I must have taken this photo to show the patchwork nature but of course the raw edges are enclosed between the lining and the outer patchwork. 





I not only learned the order of colours but that I prefer a mix of bright and neutral shades myself. However, she seemed to like the bag and I felt better having acknowledged the contributions she makes to groups that benefit so many of us.